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Hi-res Noh

Claire suggested me this promo video by Canon, showing off the amazing capabilities of the 5D Mark II model camera. Interestingly enough, Canon used Noh for the concept of this advertisement. The images are just gorgeous and I love the superimposition of movements and non-Noh music. Philologically, the autumn sequences are a bit out of place as Hagoromo, the play shown, is a Spring play ‘par excellence’. The authors were probably inspired more by the colours of the choken, the dance cloak the shite wears in the second half of the play. Though my impression of the video is very positive, I know other people in the Noh would be annoyed by what is sometimes considered an over-aestheticisation of what should be more austere and less flashy. However, Noh is not in the Taisho era anymore and I wonder to what extent it is possible (and meaningful?) to leave it as it was…

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4 thoughts on “Hi-res Noh”

Hey I like this so much, thanks for sharing. It's the only Canon camera that I completely respect to its distinctive capability even better than Nikon cameras with the same caliber.I also like the way the director of this clip portray Noh through the lens of this camera. I just felt peaceful when watching it🙂

The quality of the pictures are impressive. I think HD quality imparts 'stillness' in the images really well! I'm just not sure about the piano music… To me, it seems to clash with the image of Noh. It just brings too much of sentimentality to it! But then again that's the point you've raised at the end of the article.It certainly is interesting to ponder. Thank you for sharing.

I thought it unfortunate that the distinctive and unique rhythms of the okawa and kotsudsumi were lost, but they did have a modern remix of noh music at the beginning that had at least the flute. If only remixing weren't so tied to western theories of music. What do you think Diego, is it possible to remix noh music to be distinctively noh-like?

Humm.. yes! I think there are some distinctive features of Noh music which would be interesting to see employed in remixes.. eg could be great to remix western music through jo/ha/kyu. this would challenge music production software a lot!